My Favorite Applebee's

Applebee's isn't really that cool of a restaurant. I've been to many of them, but never really cared about them one way or another. They are one of those safe restaurants where you know what you're in for and you're okay with it even though you'd probably never bother to recommend it to anyone. But I've now had a really good time at a particular Applebee's location twice in a row, separated by six months. I'm in Pocatello, Idaho now and this restaurant is located within walking distance of our hotel, which, after a long day of driving, is a clear bonus. However, it's the experience that's been fun.

When I was here in March, Rob (a coworker) and I sat at the bar for dinner due to a huge waiting list. It turned out to be a great decision as we sat around with a bunch of locals playing "Guess the 80's Song Currently Playing". We had a good time guessing, but it got way better when the bartender decided to reward correct guesses with free beers. It even got ridiculous when a student who was there pulled out his laptop and cellular PC card to Google things for us. The bartender decided that he did not deserve free drinks for that and he decided that his minutes were to valuable to waste on a bar game. We kept thinking that the bartender was going to get tired of giving out free drinks, but we didn't pay for anything for the rest of the night and had to cut her off from giving us any more, since we did have to work in the morning. The best part was when an old guy (not old, maybe 50, but old enough that 80's music wasn't his music) pulled out his Blackberry and found a particularly stumping one for us. He made the laptop guy feel pretty silly too.

Tonight we pulled the bar thing again due to the line out the door. And tonight we had a great time with a couple guys from the gulf coast. Both were from Louisiana, but one lives in Houston now. They were up here on business too and were a hoot. They one still living in Louisiana was especially playing up the fish out of water game. He's apparently from a bayou about 90 miles from New Orleans. Every time you see Louisiana in the movies, that's his town. The swamps and mosquitoes and alligators and everything. He's very proud that he lives at +9 feet elevation. Much smarter than those NO folks. The Houston guy seemed to think that everywhere smaller than his hometown might as well be run by Boss Hogg. (For those keeping score, Houston is the 4th largest city in the country, behind, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.) He wasn't sure he was going to know what to do with himself in Pocatello, Idaho. Both guys worked together for some consulting firm that was closely related to the oil industry. The main thing that they had to say about that was that maybe we should give the industry a break and if we really want to get away from it, we should stop buying stuff and driving everywhere. They didn't seem too concerned that we might do this, but if we do, they are ready to jump into other industries instead. Good consultants can suck money from whoever has it.

I suppose I'll have to go back next Spring when I'm back this way again, just to see what's going on at my favorite Applebee's.